ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of consonantal assimilation in Spanish. Four main types are discussed and exemplified with data from diverse Spanish dialects: specifically, place assimilation, voice assimilation, manner assimilation, and gemination (total assimilation). Consonantal assimilation in Spanish is generally anticipatory, and it tends to involve coda targets and onset triggers. Both sonorants and obstruents can be targets of consonantal assimilation in this language, albeit in different ways. The chapter discusses several empirical issues related to the study of consonantal assimilation in Spanish. The most important is the extent to which some of the documented assimilatory phenomena in this language are categorical vs. gradient, or optional vs. obligatory. This impinges on how best to analyze variable assimilation theoretically. In addition, future studies should investigate the possible connection between apparently unrelated assimilatory phenomena, such as interdentalization and gemination, in order to increase our understanding of consonantal assimilation in Spanish. After a brief overview of recent theoretical frameworks used in the phonological analysis of assimilation, the chapter presents a case study of palatalization in Chilean Spanish that connects to some of the empirical and theoretical issues raised previously.
